Also signed up for the CapitaStar membership the night before to take advantage of my taking advantage of the various opening promotional offers.
Since I had two $5 Blackmores vouchers from my purchase of the NTUC Income policy, I decided to get some fish oils. Two small bottles to maximise the $5 vouchers each, since they only allow 1 voucher per receipt.
One was $30 and the other was $20, so that's 20% off overall. Plus a few points for my PAssion card. Feels good.
Coincidentally, Guardian was having some kind of breast cancer awareness event going on and there were some pink ribbon chains going at $3.90 that the label claimed will go to the Singapore Cancer Society, so I got one too. $3.90 is a small price for the slim chance that maybe somewhere out there, someone's life will be changed by it.
Then I went to Watson's also for more fish oil because Blackmores was also having some extra discounts there in conjunction with the opening sale.
That part of the trip was more interesting.
First, I signed up for the Watson's card for the extra 5% off (and more in the future, since it's a lifetime membership). When I fished out the iPad from my bag to activate the card online on the spot, the cashier mistook it for a laptop.
She was a very nice lady throughout my visit, so I'm not going to be sarcastic, but I was extremely surprised that there are Singaporeans who didn't know anything about tablets.
She asked me if that was the latest laptop, expressing surprise that it was so small, and that she thought laptops had to be plugged into a power socket constantly like desktops.
You cannot imagine my incredulity when I heard her say all that. (I'd say "disbelief" but I actually do believe she was for real.)
An infinite ways to mock her came to mind, but like I said, she was very friendly to me, so I'm not going to say any of them. In fact, she was the friendliest person I met throughout my time at the mall, and even offered the cashier's counter for me to place the tablet on since she thought it was a laptop and people usually do not hold their laptops while using them.
Now I truly understand why there are people in America who barely know what the Internet is, as shown in this website where some guy posts all the ignorant comments made by his cousin, and he has been doing so for such a long time behind his back because his cousin knows jack shit about the web.
This friendly middle-aged lady was almost the same.
A reason I'm surprised is because I practically live online. However, the biggest reason I feel this way is because Singapore is SO small! How do people get so isolated to the point where they don't even recognize a tablet? I mean, there are two electronics stores in the very same mall!
In addition, I have this feeling that when I said it was a tablet called an "iPad", she didn't recognize the name.
I'm not trying to be offensive here but this is just mind-blowing.
Okay, enough of this.
So after getting the card and the house brand's 250ml hand lotion freebie, I managed to activate the card within 5 minutes and went on to look for the fish oil.
Decided on a large bottle that was going for almost S$29 for 150 capsules.
Then this saleswoman from another brand came over and asked me what I was looking for.
I told her I was getting some fish oil, so she pulled out her company's brand of fish oil and told me that that was better.
Obviously, my only response was to ask her how, mainly because I had already made up my mind and was curious about whether she could change my mind.
Unfortunately for her, her sales tactic was to try to convince me that Blackmores was a very average brand and hers was better without really explaining why.
Again, obviously, my only response was to ask her how again.
So she pointed out that the ingredients were better, hers was more nutritious, and hers was made in Canada, without actually going into detail about the nutrition. Moreover, her brand's fish oil capsules were priced at merely twenty-something cents each. (I later calculated that Blackmores capsules were priced at less than $0.20 each.) I didn't know where Blackmores waas made until two minutes ago when I read the label - Australia - and it didn't make a difference in my opinion that the quality is not questionable (and therefore equal) unless it's made in Asia.
Less than impressed by her salesmanship, I decided that this was it - I was going to stick with my initial choice. But I was curious how different that brand really was despite of her terrible sales style, so I took her bottle... and then also took the bottle of Blackmores fish oil I had in mind to compare.
Then I raised what I considered to be an extremely valid point, which is of course just my opinion, that they were the same. My reason was simple: all the ingredients listed were identical. Yet her response was to make a dismissive gesture with a hand and repeated her personal mantra that hers was better.
Natural fish oil - 1000mg - same
EPA - 180mg - same
DHA - 120mg - same
BUT! There was, apparently, a huge difference after these three!
Brace for it!
.
.
.
.
.
.
That brand had ONE FULL MICROGRAM of Vitamin E while Blackmores only stated on the label "In a base containing natural vitamin E"!
HOLY SHIT! 1ug of Vitamin E??!?? MUST BUY!!
I actually pointed them out and read the lines aloud just to see her face, and her voice got slightly more elevated while saying that that was it, her brand had more of that than the other.
At this point I feel that I should make it clear that while I said that salesmanship did not impress me, this definitely did, albeit in a rather negative way.
How full of shit could she get? It may or may not be her fault, but I found her style annoying.
Since I had all the time in the world, I didn't just stop there.
Somehow it came to me that the prices must be different enough so that her brand could afford to hire a salesperson. Therefore I looked at the price labels and confirmed my suspicion - her brand cost over $50 for 180 capsules while Blackmores was only $29 for 150.
By now she probably knew there was no way in hell I was getting hers, hence she just kept insisting that hers was better and I should buy it till I returned her bottle to her and said as nicely as I could that I was just going to try the other bottle. Her reply was a curt," Okay, whatever you want."
Even thanked her because despite her terrible salesmanship, she didn't deserve to have a proportionately terrible day. It's not her fault that she sucked at her job; not everyone can get a job he/she is good at, and I'm living proof of that. But she was irritating right from the start when she kept bashing the brand I had already decided on before entering the store without actually having a single valid reason. I actually thought salespeople should have some sort of real reason, even theoretical ones, to explain how their products are better than the others. Well, not this one.
Still, I think she was aware that her product provided nothing to back her sales pitch, so I guess I should give her credit for trying.
It's probably also a good idea to state the disclaimer here that I am in no way endorsing Blackmores. I just picked it because it was having a promotion and it was cheaper than other brands. I have absolutely no idea if it's particularly good or bad, nor have I actually read any reviews on it.
So don't simply go for it just because I keep spamming the name here. I am absolutely not recommending it! I haven't even tried it yet, and even if I have, one fish oil capsule alone isn't going to do anything for anyone.
Anyways, also got 3 footlongs from Subway to get the 20% off using the mailer I got last week. The guy who took my order sucked. I didn't notice until I got home that the guy used only 1 layer of paper to wrap my subs, so they weren't packed tightly and everything was quite ready to fall apart by the time I got home.
He's probably as new as the mall, so whatever. At least they didn't actually fall apart, or I'd have sent a complaint just for the heck of it. No, I don't actually expect anything to happen when I send complaints; I just hope something improves.
Finally, I got some fries with dips at this shop called "Sofries" opposite of the Subway outlet since it was new and I kinda sympathise with fellow local small businesses.
They offered cold soggy fries with all their dips as free samples. Not exactly the best idea since cold soggy fries are nothing like fresh ones, IMO worlds apart even, but I guess it wouldn't make economic sense to keep replacing the fries all day just for providing good free samples, especially on a traffic-free weekday.
I like fries, but their food is not particularly good. Generously salted, freshly fried, decent range of dips but those were not that fantastic. Maybe their forte was at something else.
Upon tasting them more carefully at home, I found that it's actually kinda obvious that the house special, the "Sofly" dip (clearly a double entendre playing on their brand and the slang definition of "fly"), was merely the result of them fooling around with common sauces and condiments anyone could get from supermarkets. To get me to say that the dips are good, they would have had to make something that I can't whip up in my own kitchen.
But it was decent enough.
Worse, the quantity of fries is bad - I can get more fries at any MCDs than what I got from them at the same price. Although MCD doesn't offer thick fries like they do, and fries at most fast food chains don't cost $5 for a regular-sized serving.
The best thing about the shop was probably the fact that I got the loyalty card without technically hitting the minimum purchase amount of $10. I was waiting for my fries when I saw the poster about loyalty card discounts, and I asked the guy how I could get a card. When he said anyone who spends at least $10 will get it, I couldn't help but exclaim," Almost!"
My order of two regular fries only amounted to $9.80.
Then he took a card from beneath the counter and offered it to me.
:D
I'm not sure if I will ever buy from them again, okay maybe once or twice more to try the other fries (but not the dips), but it feels good to get stuff for free.
Edit: Now I think it was 1iu of vitamin E, not 1ug.
No comments:
Post a Comment